The business messaging landscape underwent a significant transition in 2025, moving rapidly towards rich, conversational channels while grappling with persistent issues like fraud and rising costs. The MEF Messaging Channels Yearbook 2025 offers an essential overview of this dynamic year, providing a look at the major shifts, new opportunities, and critical challenges for all industry stakeholders.
The long-term forecast for business messaging remains strong, but the market saw a notable shift away from traditional SMS One-Time Passcodes (OTP) due to fraud concerns—especially SIM swapping and artificially inflated traffic (AIT)—and high international pricing. This pushed enterprises toward alternatives like rich Over-The-Top (OTT) apps, network APIs, and flash calling.
WhatsApp aggressively targeted the OTP market, adjusting its pricing in 2025 to make its authentication rates potentially half the cost of SMS in some cases. The platform also revealed plans to introduce ads in the Updates tab, a move that could unlock a major new revenue stream and that regulators are watching closely.
Meanwhile, RCS received a massive boost from Apple’s adoption of the standard. This compatibility is suggested to have contributed to a fivefold increase in global RCS traffic. Apple confirmed further support in 2025 by announcing plans to support RCS Universal Profile 3.0, enabling encrypted communication between iPhone and Android for the first time.
Beyond Meta and Google, social networking giants accelerated their entry into the messaging space. Highlights include TikTok’s launch of Messaging Ads and X’s major overhaul to build an “everything app” with its premium-only XChat service. Regulators also intensified anti-fraud activities, with new scam prevention frameworks launched in Australia and Spain, and Apple introducing a message filter in its iOS 26 update.
The MEF Messaging Channels Yearbook 2025 provides detailed analysis and key industry data, including global traffic forecasts and a definitive list of the most popular messaging apps across 30 strategically important countries.
Download the Yearbook to understand the key trends, regulatory actions, and technological developments that are reshaping the A2P messaging ecosystem.
- The business messaging market is seeing a major shift away from SMS OTP (One-Time Passcodes) due to rising costs and accelerating fraud, such as SIM swapping and artificially inflated traffic (AIT).
- RCS adoption and traffic saw a huge surge in 2025, largely driven by Apple’s support, with one industry data point suggesting a fivefold increase in global RCS traffic.
- WhatsApp is aggressively pursuing the A2P market, particularly for authentication, by introducing a new ‘delivered message’ pricing model and making its OTP rates in some cases half the cost of SMS.
- Social media companies are increasing their presence in business messaging, with highlights including TikTok’s launch of Messaging Ads and X’s overhaul of its direct messages into XChat as part of its “everything app” vision.
- Global anti-fraud and regulation efforts intensified in 2025, with new frameworks in Australia and Spain, a revised sender registry in Ireland, and Apple introducing a message filter in its iOS 26 update.
- Despite the migration to rich channels, A2P SMS traffic remains “buoyant” in specific European countries like Spain, the UK, and France.
